32 GRs to regularise courses withdrawn

The medical education and drugs department has withdrawn 32 government resolutions (GRs) that it issued on March 18 to regularise nursing courses that were being conducted illegally.

On March 20, HT had reported that the government had issued about 40 resolutions to regularise illegal nursing courses in the state in 2012-13. However, on March 22 the department withdrew 32 GRs.

"When the story appeared in HT, chief secretary Jayant Banthiya reviewed all the GRs. The ones that were considered to be flouting rules were immediately withdrawn,'' said a department official.

When HT contacted deputy secretary of medical education Ashok Atram, who had issued these GRs, he refused to comment. "I do not know anything about this matter," he said.

Atram had issued the resolutions on March 18 permitting nursing schools across the state to run Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and General Nurse Midwife (GNM) courses and this was against government rules that state that such permissions must be given before the start of the admission process.

The state is also fighting a legal battle with the department in the Bombay HC on the grounds that nursing schools must seek permission from Indian Nursing Council and the state before the start of the academic year, to run such courses.

The Forum for Fairness in Education (FFIE) has demanded that the issue be discussed in the ongoing state assembly. "The department was trying to legalise illegal admissions for more than 5,000 students. We want the issue to be brought up in the assembly,'' said Jayant Jain of the FFIE.